Skyrim: A Thief's Journey
by EvolvingSentinel
Summary: Join Argo as he works his way up from a common thief to Skyrim's Hero.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: A Journey Begins

Argo picked up his new blade from the forge. It was heavy, which was good. He pierced a hay bale with his sharp steel blade. This was fine, incredibly effective. This is a perfect blade. Skyforge steel is great and all, but Ebony blades are stronger. This was the only good blade he had access to, unless he wanted to go through a dungeon. Yeah how about no, he thought to himself. His train of thought was broke by the blacksmith who wants to get straight down to business.

"It's the best one we got, but the price is quite high." The blacksmith claims.

"No price is to high for me Gray-Mane, tell me, what's your price?" Argo asks.

"A solid 1,000 gold, are you up for it?" Gray-Mane asks.

"Uh… yeah on second thought, maybe I'll just walk this way… and this never happened." Argo slowly walked back and quickly darted towards the Whiterun Stables. Hopping over walls the Gray-Mane chased him, sword in hand. Argo climbs up the wall and jumps onto the roofs of houses. The Gray-Mane still chased him and somehow managed to get on the roofs with him. Wow, Argo thought, I should've known who I was messing with. The Whiterun Guards pick out the situation and closely follow shouting words like, "Stop!" and "You're going to jail for this!". Argo laughs and says,

"You know no prison can keep me fools, for I am a thief!" Argo goes on, "And I never give up!"

Argo runs and jumps to the next roof. His landing was rough, but he manages to pull himself up. The stables are in clear sight and there he picks out his horse for his great escape. He jumps and lands on the wall and balances his way to the stables. He prepares for his jumps onto the stable roof and jumps. This is where he went wrong. Argo falls straight through the roof and into a pile of horse crap.

"Ugh… Oh shit!" Argo looks up to see two guards by his feet and passes out.

"Haha, look at this thief scum!" one guard says, "He couldn't even make it out of the area!"

The other guard calls two other guards over who then proceed to pick Argo's limp body up and take him to the Whiterun Jail. Argo wakes up in a pile of hay in a jail cell. Aw shit, he thought, I was so close. He reaches in his pocket for the spare lockpick he keeps for situations like this. He pokes his scaled lizard head out of the bars to check if any guards were there. One guard had his butt propped in a wooden chair, snoozing he duty away with an tankard with Nord Mead inside. Better than last time at least, he thought. He stuck the lock pic in and began his work. He slowly messed around with the lock and PRESTO! The lock was picked. Carefully he opened his cell door, minding the creaks it made. Right when it was wide enough to slip through he went. Argo ambled over to the sleeping guard and reached in his pocket. He took some change and carefully reached for his dagger that the guard had on his belt. He gripped the dagger with his finger and his thumb and gently pulled up. Once he could fully snag the knife the tankard dropped with a cling and the guard woke. Argo hid behind the seat and the guard got up and started checking cells. Every step he took he groaned. Argo slowly swept up behind him and covered his mouth. Argo's iron dagger took it's toll on the guards throat, killing him instantly. Argo gently set the guard's body down and focused on a way out.

"Come on you been in this situation before, where's the exit?" he whispered noticing an open window at the top of some stacked barrels, "there we go…"

"Stop right there!" a random voice commanded.

He knew he was done.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Escaping Prison

Argo turns around to see a scrawny red-skinned man, grasping the bars. "What are you doing, you'll get me caught." Argo whispers to the man. "Does it look like I care," he whispers back, "I'd like to get out of this hell hole." Argo gives the red-skinned man a fair nod and tiptoes over to the dead guard. Argo reaches into the lifeless body's pocket and holds up a key. Got it, he thought. He headed towards the cell and unlocked it. The man got out and stretched.

"It's pretty stuffy in there." he said, in no rush to leave.

"Hey, there could be guards coming soon so let's, you know, get out of here." Argo said heading towards the window.

"You never told me your name," the prisoner said, looking at Argo who was halfway out the window.

"You never told me yours," Argo said before he vanished back into the city of Whiterun. The red-skinned man followed closely. "The name's Argo," he said walking down the path, shielding his face from passing guards. "Cool, my name is Carus by the way." Carus replies, trying to keep up with Argo.

"Where are you from?" Argo asks.

"Don't you see my skin color?" Carus implies, "I'm obviously from Hammerfell."

"Well I know that much…" Argo says, "I meant where are you from from?"

"Dragonstar, right on the edge of Hammerfell, close to the Province of Skyrim," Carus says.

"Why did you come here?" Argo asks, looking for a way to get out of Whiterun without guards catching them.

"Well, some Kahjits were coming thorugh our town and I oh so badly wanted to see Skyrim," Carus went on, "A place were people said they lived freely and calmly. Were pies were set out on the sills of windows to cool and send a greart smell through the land. I enjoyed the place for less than a year, that was when the war started, and dragons had come again. It was harder for people like me to get by, so the Kahjits I had traveled with, got me to do their dirty work. And I ended up in that cage."

Well at least you didn't mess up your great escape like I did, Argo thought. They headed towards the sewers and Argo slipped through the bars. Carus cautiously fit his head through the bars and slipped through the bars and falling, making a loud splash that aroused guards. Argo dipped into the murky, green water. Carus pushed up against a wall in the darkness. He was easily noticeable. Argo clutched his knife, close to his side, still under the dirty water.

"Who's there?" the guard said locking his eyes on Carus.

Argo emerged from the green water and threw his knife. The guard's face turned pale, and his body fell lifelessly to the ground. Direct hit, Argo thought, nice. "You almost got yourself killed, or worse, jail time." Argo said lecturing Carus as he walked up to grab is knife.

"How is going to jail worse than death?" Carus asked Argo.

"Well you won't find an experienced person like me to free you next time," Argo replied, wiping his knife on the guard's leather armor, "Come on, let's go, won't be long till sundown."

And with that, they traveled the smelly sewers until they found a ladder and an opening. Argo was the first to get out, just in case any guards had followed them. "All clear," He said, signaling for Carus to come up. "Where do we go from here?" Carus asked.

"Riften, my friend," Argo said looking southeast from Whiterun, towards the horizon, "I got some business to handle."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Bandits

"So why Riften of all places…?" Carus questions Argo, dragging his feet while holding a lantern so they could see their way through the darkness of the night, "And seriously, are we ever going to stop?"

"We are stopping at Windhelm later… okay?" Argo replies, clutching the shiny object he had hidden in his pocket ever since his journey from Solitude to Whiterun, up to now. The reason he wanted to go to Riften was because of the diamond encrested golden ring he carried in his pocket. It had great value, if he got it to Delvin, a man who lived down in the Rataway in Riften. He is always down at the Ragged Flaggon, sipping his alto wine, waiting for thieves like Argo who are looking for a nice pay. If he got this ring to Delvin, he'd have a nice fortune for a measily thief, two thousand gold septums. A nice prize, Argo thought, as long as Carus doesn't find out, he'd probably take it from me when my eyes grew weary.

"Argo! Watch out!" Carus yells as he runs to grab Argo's arm. He was headed for a cliff and didn't look like he noticed.

"Oh… I didn't…" Argo says, lost for words.

"You weren't looking… that's what," Carus lectures looking around, "I think I see a light over there where that stone bridge looks to be…"

"Okay, it is fairly late I guess…" Argo says, starting for the stone bridge.

As they came closer to the bridge they noticed two people under the light, one sitting in a chair and the other standing. They were dressed in cheap anmal fur. The one sitting down was drinking, and counting gold septums on the table next to him. It was a lot, one thousand at the least. As they approached, Argo doubted whether their choice to go there was a smart idea. The shocking realization came to Argo when they finally approached them… they were bandits.

"Excuse me s-" Carus says before rudely interrupted by the man.

"Two hundred gold septums to pass through…" the man commands, holding up an orchish dagger.

"Look, we don't want any trouble…" Argo says, putting his arm in front of Carus, pushing him back, "We were just… passing through."

"And to pass through it's two hundred gold septums, or your head goes," the man threatens, pointing to the heads of unlucky passerbys who couldn't pay the fee.

"Let's just say, we don't go o-" Argo says before he hits the ground, his head looking up to the stars now. Shit, he thought, he just kicked me to the ground, didn't he? Argo lifted his head up from the dirt and gravel road. There, his vision blurred as he saw Carus take out a dagger and attack the bandit highwayman, and then Argo blacked out.

"Hey, wake up Argo," a soft, familiar voice told the now recovering Argo, "Those bandits got you good didn't they… it's okay though, you're safe now." A warm fuzzy hand now slowly caressed Argo's scaly green face.

"Ugh… " Argo grunted shifting his body, reaching for his pocket, feeling only the leathery emptiness of it… he went into a sudden panic, "Where… where is it?!"

He opened his eyes to see a face that could've made his scales turn as white as a ghost, "L-Lief?" His eyes now focused on the beautiful khajiit. "Yes, it's me Argo…" she says, still caressing his face.

"I thought I lost you to the frost trolls in that… place." Argo used all his strength to reach his arms around Lief into a big hug. He started to cry. Lief embraced him back. Argo then laid back down, and slowly fell back asleep. That's when he remembered… all of it.


End file.
